The three tiny scrolls found almost 100 years ago
With the help of AI, X-rays and a particle accelerator, scientists “unfolded virtually” and were able to read a document found a century ago in a Mongol Reliquary.
Finally, after almost a century, a Buddhist scroll found inside a small mongol reliquary was read. But no one opened it.
In the document, stored at the Berlin National Museum, was an old Sanskrit mantra, which was read by the team with the help of advanced X -ray and Artificial Intelligence (IA) technology… without physically touching the historical object, identified as a one Gungerva.
A Gungervaa is a portable altar traditionally used by Mongolia Buddhist families. With just half a meter high, the reliquary was collected during an expedition in the 1930s and taken to Germany, where it was practically ignored for decades.
During a recent inspection at the Berlin National Museum, Restorative Birgit Kantzenbach discovered, inside the Reliquário, three tiny worse -wrapped tits in yellow silk. The size of a phosphorus compares, were too fragile to be opened manually without risk of destruction.
It was then that the physicist Tobias Arly of Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, proposed to use X -ray tomography technology – similar to that used to analyze lithium batteries – to view the interior of the scrolls without damaging them. With the help of Bessy II particle acceleratorthe researchers obtained thousands of images that were later processed with specialized software to rebuild and “unfold” virtually the content of the scrolls.
The result surprised: text lines emerged in Tibetan characters, but written in Sanskrit – An unusual linguistic combination that may be ritual -specific ritual practices of the time or region. Among the readable fragments, the famous mantra was read “Om Mani Padme Hum”, Which can be translated as“ praise to jewel in the lotus ”and is associated with compassion and acceptance in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.
A ink Used to write the mantra also intrigued scientists: it seems to have metal particles, which is rare, since traditional Chinese paint was made of soot and animal glue, invisible to the X -ray. The team speculates that these particles can contain gray or bone dust of venerated lames, according to the study at the Journal of Cultural Heritage.
The scrolls are now part of the “Dialogue Restoration” exhibition at the Humboldt Forum in Berlin until June 2026, but the museum claims to have plans to return the reliquary to Mongolia.
